Abilene businesses deal with spring break staffing

While some are working on their tans in a far off beach resort, taking a break only to hydrate with a cold beverage, many stayed behind either by choice or necessity to fill in the gaps in the workplace left by spring breakers.

Though some businesses in smaller towns — there were at least three restaurants in Colorado City that has signs saying “closed for spring break” — opted for total closure for the week, it is business as usual for many.

At the South 14th Street Schlotzsky’s in Abilene, general manager Rosa Villarreal said the week requires all hands on deck and a lot of hours worked. There were a lot younger employees that took the week off as far as her store is concerned.

The “seasoned” ones, as she puts it, opted to forgo spring break and rack in some overtime.

“Some work double shifts, and everybody works together,” Villarreal said, adding the man

agers also find themselves “working the lines.”

“Some are single parents and they posted on the calendar (ahead of time) that they can work everyday,” Villarreal said.

Chick-fil-A on Southwest Drive is missing 14 people, all of whom took the spring break week off. However, the crew at the location hasn’t missed a beat, the owner, Brian LaCroix, said.

“You just get creative and you call upon your leadership to step up a little bit,” LaCroix said. “This is the time when they work a little bit longer hours than they’re used to.

LaCroix said short handed as it is, he’s glad he has assembled a team that works well under pressure.

“It’s a cool opportunity for some of these kids to get experience and try some new things and it allows them the opportunity to step up,” he said. “I have more people getting overtime this week than we have all year.”

When it comes to services, public entities such as the city of Abilene makes certain there are enough personnel on the job at any given day, according to Callie Harris, the city’s spokeswoman.

She said there are not a lot of off for the week off and operations at city hall is “business as usual.”

“In matters of high urgency, we can reach vacationing managers through remote PC access, phone and email,” said Frank Caceres, chief financial officer of outsourcing company, Allied Employer Group. “It would have to be an extreme situation for us to interrupt management time-off with business matters because we place high importance on employee privacy and the separation of work and family time.”

Planning is the key, especially for bigger companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. The company has about 1,000 employees in Abilene, and a total of close to 6,000 personnel statewide.

Its spokeswoman, Margaret Jarvis, said spring break is just like any other holiday stretch: the company has a standing plan on how to handle employee time off.

But for smaller business like Chick-fil-A, LaCroix doubles as an employee in times like this. “I can’t complain,” he said. “One week out of the year ain’t bad.”